Gianandrea and the BBC Philharmonic had a huge triumph with their Beethoven Symphony Cycle in concert, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and available for download (taken up by 1.4 million people across the world) and for which they won a coveted South Bank Show Award. The Orchestra replicated this success the following year when the BBC Philharmonic along with The Royal Northern College of Music and The Hallé received the 2007 South Bank Show Award for Classical Music for their collaborative tribute to the great Russian composer.

The BBC Philharmonic is regularly invited to major European cities and have recently performed in Prague and Vienna. After a highly successful tour to Japan three years ago, Gianandrea and the Orchestra have been invited to return in 2008.

Gianandrea’s predecessor was Yan Pascal Tortelier, who held the post for ten years and is now Conductor Laureate. Vassily Sinaisky is Principal Guest Conductor, James MacMillan is Composer/Conductor and Sir Edward Downes is Conductor Emeritus. The Orchestra was originally named The BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra and celebrated its 70th birthday in 2005. It has an exclusive recording contract with Chandos Records and over the last decade it has become known as one of the world’s most recorded orchestras with over 200 CDs to its name. As well as this, the Orchestra’s contract now includes Mp3 downloads from the Chandos website, including the famous cycle of Beethoven symphonies. Other works available include Schubert’s Symphonies Nos. 8 and 9 and George Lloyd’s Fourth Symphony.

In his role as Principal Conductor Gianandrea Noseda has made many critically acclaimed recordings for Chandos of repertoire by Respighi, Prokofiev, Karlowicz, Dallapiccola, Dvorak, Schubert, Liszt and Shostakovich. The recent Liszt Faust Symphony CD has been critically acclaimed internationally and was the BBC Music Magazine Disc of the Month. Earlier this year three recordings for Chandos by the BBC Philharmonic received Grammy Award nominations, and the Bax Symphonies disc with Vernon Handley received high acclaim worldwide and won a Gramophone Award in the Orchestral Recording category.

The Orchestra's policy of introducing new and adventurous repertoire has meant that many of the world’s greatest composers have taken the BBC Philharmonic podium, among them Berio, Copland, Penderecki, Tippett and Walton. In 1991 Sir Peter Maxwell Davies became the BBC Philharmonic's first Composer/Conductor and was succeeded in 2000 by James MacMillan. The Orchestra has recorded three CDs of his music, including The Birds of Rhiannon with the BBC Singers and The Confession of Isobel Gowdie.

In recent years the BBC Philharmonic has premiered works by James MacMillan, Edward Gregson, Graham Fitkin, Tunde Jegede, Chen Yi and Gerard Schurmann. Soloists with whom the Orchestra has recently worked include Barbara Frittoli, Yo Yo Ma, James Ehnes, Steven Isserlis, John Tomlinson, Leila Josefowicz, Nikolaj Znaider, Anna Netrebko and Katarina Karneus.

The Education and Community work at the BBC Philharmonic has included a ground-breaking Supermarket Symphony by Barry Russell whose new composition was performed by the Orchestra (plus helpers) in the aisles of Asda, North Manchester. A musical 'whodunnit' (Who Killed Ramona Rhapsody?) has played to over a thousand pupils here and abroad, and school visits to watch the Orchestra rehearsing in Studio 7 at the BBC take place all year round.

visit: www.bbc.co.uk/philharmonic/